Month: May 2017

Will You Be Streaming the WWDC 2017 Keynote Live Via Apple TV?

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There have been previous years in which Apple has chosen not to live-stream its WWDC keynotes, but this year, it’s full-stream ahead.

Considering you are reading the Apple TV Gaming Blog, chances are good that you have a fourth-generation Apple TV. Go to the App Store on your Apple TV, hold in the mic button on your Siri Remote, and say “Apple Events.” If all goes according to plan, you’ll end up on the page for the Apple Events app which you can download for free.

As an entrée, you can watch or rewatch past WWDC keynotes from within the app in order to get primed for the main course. And on the 6th June at 3am (Australian), just six sleeps away, the main event will be available live.

What will we see announced for Apple TV as far as gaming-related news goes? A fifth-generation Apple TV? With more on-board storage? 4K compatibility? More horsepower under the hood?

These are the rumours that have been circulating for a while, and they are pretty reasonable predictions, as they ultimately just outline a new iteration of Apple TV with more of everything. WWDC is predominantly focused on software announcements however, so chances are good that we will just see the next tvOS unveiled, with hardware to be revealed later in the year. Hardware has been announced during WWDC keynotes before though, so we wouldn’t write it off completely.

Back in 2014 over on Grab It Magazine I predicted we’d see a gaming-capable Apple TV announced during that year’s WWDC keynote, but history proved me about 12 months early. I  won’t make any predictions of my own this year, but instead wait patiently and report after the fact.

So tune in this time next week, and if there’s any news announced that effects gaming on your Apple TV, ATVG will do its best to round it all up and put a neat bow around it for your reading pleasure.

Early Impressions: Subdivision Infinity

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After spending Friday night fighting and mining our way through Subdivision Infinity’s first star system, getting some shut-eye and loading up on coffee, ATVG is back in the saddle to bring you our thoughts so far.

Published by Crescent Moon Games and developed by Mistfly Games, Subdivision Infinity is a premium game as opposed to free-to-play, so you probably want a heads up on how this 3D space combat title fares before separating with your iTunes credit.

Keep in mind before you do any spending, you’ll require a controller to jump into the action.

Mash the page 2 button below for the details.

Subdivision Infinity Joins Apple TV’s “Game Controller Required” Club

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As we noted last week, Subdivision Infinity has hit Apple TV today on schedule. It offers players 3D space combat via a mission-based structure, but also promises free roaming exploration, mining, and side-quests – all the major food groups.

Subdivision Infinity also joins a growing list of traditional, fully-featured games for Apple TV that require a controller, which is an encouraging sign. Ever since Apple dropped the nonsensical restriction in 2016, the list has included notable releases such as Minecraft, Dan The Man, Space Marshals 2, Super Phantom Cat, Gods of Rome, Trials Frontier, and Riptide GP: Renegade. It’s not a definitive list, I’m sure I’ve missed some.

But even so, if you check out that list alone, you’ll find some quality gaming in there across a whole range of genres.

Cutting out the Siri Remote is obviously a risk for developers to take, as it limits the adoption rate in what is already a pretty small pond until Apple TV gains in popularity. Hopefully these early risk takers will be rewarded as the platform continues to gain momentum. Here at ATVG, we believe Apple TV is a growth market, and we know there are other developers out there who agree. We certainly don’t have any plans to stop writing about it any time soon, and with WWDC just around the corner, who knows what announcements lie in wait?

Check out the trailer below for Subdivision Infinity, and let’s take a moment to applaud the brave ones, the developers who have opted in to the “Game Controller Required” Club.

Mooff Games Off-Shoot Four Fats Aims to Make Games That Aren’t Sh*t

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It’s a worthy goal, and one that we should all probably aspire to, no matter what our endeavours. For example, aviation companies should aim to make planes that aren’t shit. Similarly, whiskey distillers should aim to make whiskey that isn’t shit. Safe planes and good whiskey – that’s a world I want to live in.

If you’ve been following the bouncing ball here at ATVG, you’ll know we enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) our time with Dungeon Time, Toon Shooters 2, and Smash Club. We included Dungeon Time in our Best Apple TV Games: Year One list, had a Nintendo Switch moment with Toon Shooters 2, and gave Smash Club the full review treatment. We don’t think Mooff Games makes shit.

For reasons we don’t fully understand, the team at Mooff Games have felt the need to form a splinter group made up of the exact same team (trust us, they told us in an email last night so it must be true) to form Four Fats. This Four Fats splinter group even has a website – there’s not much on it, but we’ve a feeling there’s more to come.

Four Fats is the label under which the sequel to Blackmoor (that’s right, the sequel to Blackmoor!) – Dungeons of Darkmoor: the Traitor King – is being made, and we got excited when the team let it slip on an unrelated Facebook post yesterday.

Hit page 2 for more.

Review: Burly Men at Sea – The Horizon has Many Stories to Tell

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The touchscreens of our tablets and mobiles have turned out to be the perfect input device for point-and-click adventures, bypassing completely the mouse and keyboard middle man. So much so that the decades-old genre has seen something of a renaissance in recent years, with both new additions to the catalogue and many remasters resurfacing to make hay.

Consoles on the other hand haven’t fared so well – traditional gamepads are not the most intuitive devices for translating point-and-click input mechanics. Apple TV’s Siri Remote however, with its touch interface and minimal complexity, while not ideal for traditional video gaming, has turned out to be an ideal solution for point-and-click.

But providing the ideal interface for this style of storytelling on our lounge room TVs is only half of the solution – the other half is finding a decent game to play.

Enter studio Brain&Brain’s Burly Men at Sea – a beautiful, quiet adventure.

Hit page 2 for more.

Realtech VR Talks About Making Quantum Revenge

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It seems like we posted an eternity ago promising to spill the beans on an email we received from studio Realtech VR, which detailed its inspirations behind the game, and its journey towards completion. Well finally, here it is.

We wanted to wait until the studio had ironed out the bugs, and post the extra information as a sort of behind-the-scenes accompaniment to our review, which we posted earlier this evening.

So now, patient readers, here is the response we received a while back, after simply reaching out for some information regarding the upgrade system, in order to clarify which were consumable and which were permanent. You can read the handy stuff about the upgrades right here. Along with that info however, we received a bunch more than we bargained for, in the form of the following Q&A detailing all sorts of other interesting factoids about this excellent twin-stick shooter.

Enjoy!

Review: Quantum Revenge – A Work in Progress Comes Good

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For Quantum Revenge, version 1.0.12 was the charm. The previous 11 versions simply didn’t work. And it’s such a pity, as even from version 1.0 it was evident there was a high quality twin-stick shoot-em-up buried beneath the game breaking bugs. But studio Realtech VR worked hard hunting and squashing until finally, thankfully, its product could be played from start to finish in all its glory.

Was the end result worth the wait for early adopters, or those that held off waiting for the game to come good, or even those who’ve yet to discover it?

Hit that page 2 button for our verdict.

3D Space Shooter Subdivision Infinity Releasing May 25th

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Another quick Wednesday evening post here.

We posted a while back about three games we learned were heading the way of Apple TV, and the very nice looking 3D space shooter/adventure Subdivision Infinity is the first of those three to be granted a release date – May 25th.

Not long to wait.

The genre has a couple of quality entries on Apple TV, such as Galaxy on Fire: Manticore Rising, and Stellar Wanderer, and its the publisher of Stellar Wanderer – Crescent Moon Games – that’s also publishing Subdivision Infinity.

Apart from that unfortunately, details are scant. Nice explosions though.

Have a look:

The Sky Gamblers Series is Now on Apple TV

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There is certainly no shortage of quality racing titles on Apple TV. We devoted a section to the genre in our list of Best Apple TV Games: Year One, so you can get up to speed right there. Since we put that list together, we’ve also seen the fantastic Riptide GP: Renegade hit Apple’s digital-only console, and it’s definitely worth picking up if you’re looking for something to justify gaming on your ATV. From that same studio – Vector Unit – Beach Buggy Racing is also worth a look if you’re after something in the way of arcade kart fun.

(And for something a bit different, check this out)

If you’re aware of the Sky Gamblers series noted above in the headline, you might be wondering why we’re prattling on about racing. The reason is the fifth game in the series has moved away from plane battling, and into the world of plane racing.

The trailer below shows high quality visuals typical of the series, and the action looks fast and furious. It looks like a nice twist on the series and plane racing certainly isn’t a genre within gaming that has been saturated by any means.

Sky Gamblers: Races is a collaboration between Atypical Games and Edon Games, and after a deep dive through some letter by letter alphabet searching I saw it just hit Apple TV last weekend. I wouldn’t mind betting that it might see a banner feature when the store refreshes its showcase games at the end of this week.

Check out the trailer below and let us know via the Facebook link at the top of this page if you’re having fun with it.

Wanna See 15 Minutes of Unedited Oceanhorn 2 Gameplay Video?

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Studio Cornfox & Bros. told us a little while back that Apple TV was on the target list of platforms on which to release Oceanhorn 2, and ever since we’ve had all our fingers crossed hoping that would remain so.

After watching today’s video taken of the sequel running on an iPhone 7 Plus at the Nordic Game conference in Malmö, Sweden, we’ve crossed our toes as well. It’s looking very lovely indeed.

Hit page 2 for more.